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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Beatles' Story Transceds

Last week I had a conversation with some friends that I respect very much. The conversation turned to music, and the Beatles came up. Now let me preface all of this with saying that I am and always have been an irrational Beatles fan, so when the topic of the Beatles not being the greatest band ever came up I got defensive. I will say I made a point that would probably be considered immature and probably a little irrational. But my friends arguments was this: U2s music transcends genres, the Beatles’ music does not. Maybe this is true, but I want to talk about how the Beatles DO transcend

For the last few weeks I have been reemerging myself in Beatles lore, not the music of the Beatles. You see the stories surrounding the Beatles do transcend. These stories are what myths are made of, lets look at the Beatles as mythological figures.

You have musicians who, when they sing, the masses arrive to hear their ballads of love and heartache. They travel the world and are honored by world leaders. Controversy travels in their wake. One day the dragon that speaks like a woman divides the musicians and sets the beginning of world wide chaos. The musicians disband, and once they do their legend followers them, one is said to be dead yet living, another consorts with the dragon, one becomes a holy man and the other travels as he did.

You see, the story seems mythic. So this is my reason. The Beatles are the greatest band in the world, because In my opinion, no other band or musician, not even Elvis, has the lore or appeal that the Beatles do. There is something magical, mysterious, and downright scary about the Beatles rise and fall. There are things that don’t make sense. When you really start digging you find some things that people just CAN NOT explain. the private life of the Beatles don’t make sense.

Think back to the Paul is dead myth, considering that is is not true, it still endures. There are still hundreds of people on the Internet who who look for new clues to solve the riddle that may or may not have been left behind.

There is also the startling evidence that John Lennon knew he was going to be killed. These kinds of stories make the Beatles endure, and transcend genre and affiliation, Ask most people and they know John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, or at least Ringo.

I will go along with the Beatles music not being the best in the world, but their story and mystery does it for me. It was something that was unnatural and unreal, but extremely important at the time, and even now.